Advice needed to improve my network at home
Hi All,
I'd like to improve my current wifi situation at home and I am looking for your advice how to set things up and what to purchase in addition.
What I am looking for:
- full WIFI coverage across 3 floors
- seamless roaming without package loss
- connect to VPN and able to move within the house without disconnection
What I have so far:
- 2 x Tplink EAP 225
- Tplink Archer AX53
- Huawei EG8145V5 (ISP device)
- Switchboard at the entrance where ISPs fiber comes in
- RJ45 wall sockets all floors
The current settings covers the house, but the VPN disconnects are annoying me to a level that I want to change something
Thanks for your suggestions!!
Andras
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I don't think the VPN disconnected has any doing with the EAP. Maybe you can check on the VPN server.
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@Andrask I am assuming the VPN you mention is being accessed by a VPN app on the mobile device. If that is the case, a poor Wi-Fi signal, among other network issues can cause this. One example might be poor roaming. If the transfer from one AP to the next is not fast enough, and your device hangs on to the weak signal of the current AP, that can result in the VPN tunnel closing. Since you mentioned " able to move within the house without disconnection" specifically, I have a suspicion that could be your problem.
If you are running the VPN app on the mobile device, you could look into running VPN on your router itself so the VPN connection is not dependent on your Wi-Fi. For example on my router, I have a VPN set up that I connect to when needed.
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@Virgo , @RickJamesBish thanks for your comments!
Let me add a bit more context.
Two scenarios:
1)I work remotely and I need to connect to the corporate VPN on my laptop. It works seemlessly without any disconnects if I stay stationary. If I switch floors it disconnects and I need to connect again
2) similarly, I run a test here using my phone: packetlosstest . com. Started the test, packages were sent and received. As soon as I moved between floors and it switched to the other AP, it carried on sending packages but stopped receiving back any. If I restart the test on the floor all works fine.
Therefore I feel that maybe something is wrong with my setup/router settings/DHCP/ or general the mix of vendors that I have in place now?
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The VPN connection can disconnect while the device is "roaming" within your home. That is normal.
Some of the VPN apps give you a grace period of reconnection.
I think the 1st thing you NEED to do is a wireless site survey with an AP. Buy one AP that you are interested in. If you have one already, use that.
Download Acrylic Wireless Analyzer. Load it up on your laptop. Walk around your home and see where the Wi-Fi splashes.
I would say anything close to -65 to -70 on the 2.4ghz, you would want to put another AP. You will need overlapping signal to roam properly.
Once you do that and KNOW where you need APs. Have fun installing them in those marked places.
I'm assuming you have dead spots in your home... This will give you a CLEAR view of where and what you need.
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Also, you may have roaming issues... between BANDs on your AP.
I would setup Mini Rssi on the 5ghz at -73 (is a good starting point). this will force clients with low signal to roam to the 2.4 ghz band.
Regardless, you can enable Fast Roaming on your APs, BUT you NEED good overlapping signal between APs for that to work good.
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@KimcheeGUN this tool is fantastic, thank you!
I did a survey across the whole house, and also performed a test specific to the VPN connection.
I was connected to the purple natras (3rd below), then walked to the basement, it switched to blue (1st below) around -65.
In the moment it switched to the new AP, the VPN got disconnected (23:15:06).
From the below screenshots, do you see anything 'obvious' that I am doing wrong?
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From what it looks like... that you are not roaming between bands properly.
I would enable Mini Rssi at -72 on the 5ghz band on all the APs.
You have band steering turned off? If not, turn it off.
Make sure the APs power levels are turned up to high.
Retest after those changes.
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@Andrask Not sure if this has been asked or mentioned but are all of your APs wired back to a switch or router, or are they MESHED? Since you have not mentioned a controller I assume they are all wired.
If they are wired and not meshed, I would test again and get an RSSI between your device and basement AP, right at the location where it switches over. In the graph you provided, it appears you have some very weak signals.
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